Shares of TCS, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Wipro, Coal India and Tata Power topped the buying list, up 1-3 percent whereas L&T, Axis Bank, HUL and Hero Motocorp fell 1-1.6 percent.

Shares of Hero MotoCorp slipped over a percent on reports that two private equity investors are offloading their stake in the company. According to CNBC-TV18 sources, private equity investors such as GIC and Aberdeen are planning to sell their stake in Hero MotoCorp worth over Rs 5600 crore. GIC is looking to sell its stake through secondary deal or open market.

It is learnt that both GIC and Aberdeen are in talks with other PE and financial investors to sell stake while Warburg Pincus, Carlyle and Blackstone have already expressed an interest. If the deal goes through via the secondary market, GIC and Aberdeen could be looking at a premium of 10 percent to current market price. GIC holds 3.7 percent stake in Hero Motocorp, while Aberdeen holds 5.7 percent. If the talks with PE players do not materialise, then GIC and Aberdeen will be looking to sell their stake in tranches through open market transaction by this year-end.

The Sensex advanced 54 points to 27167 while Titagarh Wagons declined 1.7 percent on profit booking. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) and an action plan were signed between the government of India and People’s Republic of China in enhancing technical cooperation in railway sector. The potential cooperation areas mentioned in the MoU are: training in heavy haul freight transportation, increasing speed of trains on existing routes, station redevelopment, high speed rail and setting up of Railway University.

The market continued to be choppy in noon trade with the Sensex gaining 43.89 points at 27156.10 and the Nifty rising 17.60 points to 8132.35 but the BSE Midcap and Smallcap outperformed benchmarks, up 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. About 1371 shares have advanced, 1383 shares declined, and 88 shares are unchanged. Manpreet Gill, senior investment strategist at Standard Chartered, expects equities to continue to perform well. He says the markets will be dominated by a conversation of when the Fed might actually hike rates, but overall the picture is positive for equities, with earnings growing in most parts of the world. Standard Chartered is overweight on India on the back of positive sentiment and pluses on the policy front. Gill feels the markets have seen stage one of multiple-driven rally and would be looking for more optimistic earnings expectation.